Oh lord has it been hot lately!!! My house is really old…1920′s…and I’m a little upset that the builder didn’t have the foresight to see that nearly 100 years later I’d be living there and would have wanted him to install central air conditioning (with global warming going on no less!). I mean that’s just common courtesy. I’m left with ceiling fans to cool the house down and I’m forced to drink beer and eat otter pops to cool myself down. And because I can’t live (for very long…maybe a couple of days) on beer on otter pops alone, I decided some chilly grub needed to be added to the vegan happy hour menu.

Inspired by a pit-stop on my recent road trip to the Pacific Northwest I bring you Vegan Southern Fried Tofu. The wife-unit were pretty amazed by the food cart phenomenon going on in Oregon. And by amazed I mean insanely jealous and confused as to why this hasn’t taken off in Southern California. WTF?! Portland of course seemed like the epicenter of Food-cart-opia, but this recipe was inspired by a stop at a food cart in Eugene, OR that was selling vegan soul food. I was impressed and, ‘lettuce be cereal’ (‘let us be serious’ for the unhip amongst us)….Why not make MORE fried vegan happy hour deliciousness inspired by soul food?! And so began my foray into Southern Fried Tofu.

I heart buffalo wing sauce! Of course, when I say that I mean minus the part about the chicken wings. None the less, you can put this stuff on just about any fried food and the end result will be de-freakin-licious because buffalo sauce is de-freakin-licious. Buffalo wings are one of the most common happy hour foods that you will find here in the US and so I had to do a vegan take on them. Instead of going the vegan protein route though, I went with something inspired by a local happy hour spot…I used breaded, fried tomato slices.

If you have visited this blog before you have probably noticed that every once in a while I like to try and make vegan recipes that may seem just a teensie bit over the top. I make these items when typical happy hour food options just aren’t exactly what my tummy is after, and when I think of something a little bit different and my tummy says “F yes let’s do this right now,” I listen. That is where this recipe for tempura tempeh bacon came from.

Who says Disneyland is just for kids? Okay so the inspiration for this recipe did NOT come from a happy hour at a bar at all. It honestly came from one of the restaurants in Disneyland by the Pirate’s of the Caribbean ride. I of course did not have the monte cristo sandwich because it was not vegan, but my brother sure seemed like he enjoyed it (jerk) and I was admittedly jealous of his fried sandwich…